Building a hunting AR 15

[lar45]

Just to muddy The waters a little...
Have you looked at the 358 Yeti?
https://www.maddogweapons.com/358-yeti.html
180 gn @ 2600 , brass is made from cut down 308 cases.

[DDriller]

For those diving into the SOCOM, please watch and inspect all when venturing into new loads. I will call it limited into this round and it went from nothing visible to trying to push the primer through the firing pin hole with just over a grain. This was especially evident when going with the heavies, start low, go slow and inspect each case until you have established, SOP you know the drill. There is growing load info online and I have enjoyed the ride so far. Another thing on the big holes, nobody dresses the extractor out. I am a LITTLE OCD and the extractors are always knives on outboard corners and eats ones brass really bad. Spend a little time and dress and roll corners, your brass will Thank You.

Tromix makes a very fine extractor just for the 458 Socom. He knows a little about them since he built the first one ever made. Also has proper bolts, not just some with the face milled.

[Gtek]

Mr. DD, thanks for the schooling! My post was simply information and called out no one. But since you appear to be a fan boy, one of the sharpest came from Tony's house a few years ago. Maybe slipped through the cracks, who knows. The brass is not cheap and most will reload, just trying to help. Just a thought, I have owned many firearms and I cannot think of one that a little polishing here and there did not help something.

[dkf]

Those are pretty much my same reasons for leaning towards a 450 over 458. If I want to shoot a really heavy bullet real hard I can always get the 45/70 out. I’m still not fully decided, but if I had to order a barrel today that’s what I’d get. But I really love the idea of the 375 socom.
How about a review on the bear creek upper once you get it going? I’ve seen there stuff and wasn’t sure how good it would be. But you can get a whole upper for the price of a barrel anywhere else.

The BCA .458socom parts have problems. The bolt isn't right (knife edge bolt which hangs up on the case, wrong ejector and extractor), the barrel has the lower lug on the barrel extension mostly cut away. I don't know how their .450bushy stuff is but their .458socom stuff is problematic and not done properly. In the last week or so there have been two guys in the .458 group with BCA .458 uppers with the same problems.

[jmort]

This is what is needed
https://tromix.com/product/complete-...-right-handed/

[Elkins45]

My next upper build will be a 458 SOCOM, and I’m getting the parts from Tromix. The difference in price between them and the guys using guesswork reamers isn’t worth the risk of getting a dud.

[sqlbullet]

I have AR-15's in four calibers: 223/556, 6.5 Grendel, 300 AAC Blackout and 458 SOCOM. I also have AR-10's in 260 Rem, 308 Win and 358 Win. If I had to pick one AR to be my hunting gun, it would be the 358 Win. I built it to be very lightweight, and it is. 358 Win is plenty of cartridge for about anything I you might hunt in North America.

But, you are looking at an AR-15.

I would take a 300 Blackout. Yes, the Hamr hits harder with bullets between 140-160 grains. But it catches back up pretty good on the 110 and 125 grain bullets, and it supports bullets way above 160 grain. And you don't have to shoot the heavies sub-sonic. You can get 1400-1500 fps in the 200-220 grain bullets, maybe a bit more out of a 16" barrel.

And yes the blackout lags behind the 30-30 in 24" barrels. But in 16" barrels I don't think the difference is that great. My google-foo found field reports of 16" 30-30 carbines chronographing 170 grain factory loads between 1900 and 2000 fps. The Blackout should be within 50 fps of that number.

But as long as you end up with a modern sporting rifle, you won't lose!

[KCcactus]

How about a review on the bear creek upper once you get it going? I’ve seen there stuff and wasn’t sure how good it would be. But you can get a whole upper for the price of a barrel anywhere else.

The reviews I've seen were mixed. At $208, I decided to take a chance. I've only tried it once so far. I loaded 11 rds with 200 gr plated target HP meant for 45 acp and 40 gr of IMR 4227 to test function and try to get the SPARC sighted in. The aluminum 223 mag I had didn't cooperate very well. Even after I removed the follower and carved it flat, it was a pain to load. If I put in three rounds, the mag swelled enough that it didn't want to go in the lower. It was still a tight fit with two rounds, but it worked. The 5 pairs plus the extra single fed, fired and ejected with no problems. I found a couple of small fragments on my backstop, so it appears the plated HP were coming apart on impact.

With a son in college, my toy budget is extremely limited at the moment. It will be a while before I can get a couple of steel 450 mags and some FTX to give it a fair test. Until then, I'll play with the .452 stuff I have.